


Come for Me

by blumvale (sailorpipn)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Established Relationship, Gift Exchange, Holiday, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Kidnapping, M/M, Mild torture, Mistletoe, Pain, SteveTonyFest, or well the torture isn't mild but not the focus of the story and isn't well written anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2771147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailorpipn/pseuds/blumvale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>this is for queenchavez for the SteveTonyFest Gift Exchange!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come for Me

**Author's Note:**

> there's actually not that much Stony in the fic overall. And I have no idea where this came from as it's really not all that Christmasy or holidayish... woops.
> 
> I haven't written much in months... and then I get this...

Tony hated terrorists; they made his life a living hell over the years. (Okay, in the beginning he may have profited from them and the wars they started, but he’s changed. Really, he has, in more ways than one. For example, he’s only had two drinks in the past week! And considering he was having a shit week, he should be commended for keeping his consumption to a minimum.) Sure, he has money and power and a brain that could probably topple governments if he really tried, but that doesn’t help Tony understand why he’s always the first target when the bad guys pop up.

As it was, Tony is really annoyed with the U.S. government. 

Again, he was supposed to be out and under the watchful eyes of his ‘allies’ when he was taken by surprise and had a needle jammed into his neck. Darkness swept over him before he could even think of trying some of the moves Happy and, more recently, Natasha have taught him. And when he wakes up hours later he’s at an unknown location without his shoes, socks, or shirt. And it’s cold.

It’s so cold that Tony can’t stop shivering. His teeth are chattering causing his whole head to shake. It is so cold that it took Tony longer that it should to realize his ankle is shackled to the wall, with maybe ten feet of leeway. Thankfully, whoever did it to him put the cuff over his pant leg, so the metal wasn’t digging directly into his skin. Small mercies, Tony thought to himself with a shrug. He really hated terrorists.

Sticking his hands into his pockets, Tony sighed when he confirmed that he had nothing on his person to help him get out of this situation. His phone and wallet were missing. As were his keys and all the other miscellaneous odds and ends he normally collected throughout the day.

Tony didn’t understand his luck. Hasn’t he been through enough shit by now? Rhodey’s higher ups had assured everyone that Tony was going to be watched on this ‘press circuit’. With SHIELD on the down and out, aka underground and rebuilding, Tony had no one in his corner when he tried to tell everyone to fuck off. So, with some gentle, and some not so gentle, urging from Pepper and Rhodey, he gave in and agreed to look at some schematics and insult some think tank. Well, the insults had been his idea. Just because Stark Industries was out of the weapons business didn’t mean he wasn’t going to ensure, with colorful and ‘fun’ language, the morons still in it didn’t blow themselves to kingdom come.

This is what he gets for playing nice.

Trying to focus on anything other than the massive screw up that was his capture, Tony tried to figure out where he was. The building he was in had a few windows, but they were lofted, too high to give any clues for location. A half dozen vents were in the walls, but none close enough to see if they were pumping in cold air or if Tony had really been transported to the arctic circle of hell. Unsure of how long he’d slept, Tony hypothesized that he had a couple more hours of natural light available to him. There were no bulbs in the ceiling. He couldn’t hear anything other than his own breathing, so he had no idea if his captors were close or if there was any life going on outside his prison.

Running a hand through his hair Tony sent one more curse to his guard and stood. His whole body was sore and he bit back a groan as his back and neck popped a couple times when he stretched. Sometimes he really felt old. He jumped a couple times to get his blood pumping; the cold had had plenty of time to settle into his bones. Then, taking a deep breath, Tony grabbed the chain that kept him to the wall and pulled with all his might. He knew it was silly; he didn’t have super human strength like a special someone he wasn’t talking to at the moment. Tony was just a man. After his attempt proved futile, Tony took a chance at the cuff at his ankle. But as he had nothing to try and pick the lock, he gave up pretty quickly.

There was nothing in the room to indicate how long his captors wanted to keep him. There was no bed. There were no blankets or anything Tony could use to keep warm. Maybe his abductors wanted hypothermia to set in? The only sign that he might to be in for the long haul was a toilet. Well, it was really more of a hole in the ground and was located at the end of his slack. 

Tony wanted to go and bang his fist against the door, but as it was located all the way at the other end of the room, it was impossible. “Let me out of here!” he yelled once before sitting back down. 

Tony Stark wasn’t one for just giving up. But at that point in time, he really had no ideas.

 

Sleep didn’t come the first night. He wasn’t tired in the first place, not after being unconscious for who knew how long, but Tony sometimes dozed for a few minutes here and there once he’d been proven right about how much more light he had left. But it was just too cold to get anything restful. When red and gold first peeked into the room the next morning, Tony nearly cried in relief. While it had been more a year since his surgery to remove the arc reactor, he still hadn’t gotten completely used to sleeping in the dark again. The glow he’d enjoyed for years had been comforting after he’d gotten over the initial strangeness and resentment towards the whole thing. 

Tony assumed by then the others had been informed of his situation. He wondered if the gang was getting together to find him or…

Relieving yourself in a hole was uncomfortable but not as mortifying as it could be, Tony found later. He consoled himself in that it wasn’t so much worse than waking up in your own vomit after a bender and he was pretty much immune to that.

Tony wanted so desperately to go home and was so wrapped up in that thought that he didn’t immediately hear when the door started to creak open. No, he didn’t hear anything until it banged against the wall and three men in masks and identical uniforms shuffled in. Well, from their heights and builds, Tony assumed they were men, but they could have been really burly women. There were no distinguishing marks on their uniforms, so it was impossible to know if they were HYDRA, AIM, or some new brand of crazy.

When they were half way across the room, but still out of Tony’s reach even if he was at the end of his chain, the trio stopped and one of the men threw a sandwich onto the floor. From what he could see, it was just bread with a slice or two or bologna, but Tony’s stomach cramped painfully at the sight. He was starving.

Slowly, Tony forced himself to stand. But he didn’t step forward towards the food. He wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction. “What do you want from me,” he demanded, tightening his hands into fists. 

The one who had thrown the sandwich pointed to it and said, “Eat.”

“Fuck you,” Tony retorted before repeating, “What do you want from me?”

Instead of responding the trio turned to look at each other. Tony figured they must have earpieces to listen to the orders from some higher-ups by the way one of the men tilted their head to the side. It was a gesture he’d seen many SHIELD agents use when they were getting a talking to. After several seconds the men turned their backs on Tony and walked out of the room; the door closed behind them.

Once he was alone, Tony scrambled forward to the sandwich and shoved it into his mouth, not even caring if it was dirty, poisoned, or worse. In only a few bites it was gone; his hunger wasn’t near satiated. And he needed water or something to drink. Sinking back to the cement floor, Tony sat with his knees up so that he could rest his arms and forehead on them. 

Hours later, dinner was the same, but it at least came with a large jug of water that Tony tried very hard not to drain the moment he had it in his hands. Instead he forced himself to ration it, unsure of when he’d get more. He was nervous about the cold. He didn’t think it was any warmer, but he wasn’t shivering as much. Getting used to the cold wasn’t a good thing, was it?

 

By the time it was dark the fourth night, Tony felt like shit. In addition to be being cold and hungry, (he already decided he never wanted to see bologna ever again.) he had a raging headache from his forced caffeine withdrawal. As his body was normally so dependent on caffeine to make it through the day, Tony felt sluggish and his eyes were sore. He squinted at the windows as the last big of light edged away. At least in the dark, his eyes didn’t feel as strained. Of course that was when the door to the room opened and the light from the hall invaded.

Two masked men started over while a third stood in the door. One held a stun baton; Tony knew because he could hear the hum of the current. (It was something his ears had become attune to over the years.) The other man held a set of keys. 

Not liking where this was probably heading, Tony shuffled back on the floor until his back was against the wall. He out his hands up in a nonthreatening gesture and said, “Come on guys. I was just getting ready to get my beauty sleep. You don’t really want to interrupt it, do you? I mean, it doesn’t take a lot to look this good, but still…”

Instead of answering, the man holding the keys got close enough to Tony to crouch down and unlatch the cuff at Tony’s ankle. Figuring it was the only chance he was going to get, Tony lunged forward and knocked the man completely over. He tried to climb over the man and make a run for it, but Tony’s leg was grabbed and fell forward. It didn’t help that Tony didn’t really have the energy for a proper fight. Then Tony yelled out in pain when the other guy jammed the baton into back. Shuddering, Tony curled into himself, trying to get away from the pain. 

“Get him up,” key guy commanded as he stood. Listening, the other man grabbed Tony by his armpits and dragged him out of the room. Tony wasn’t given a chance to learn the layout of the building as he went across the hall into another bare room. Well, this one was almost bare as in its center was a stretcher. Tony tried to dig his heels down, but he couldn’t stop the man from forcing him onto the stretcher.

“Seriously, what do you guys want?” No one spoke to Tony as he was tied down. Tony shifted as much as he could to make it hard for then, but got a punch to the gut for his effort. “Uhg,” he groaned. “Uh… uh, Money? I have plenty of that! And I’d happily share some with you, if you just let me out of here.”

Before he could try and other anything and everything at his disposal, another man entered the room. Unlike his underlings, this man wasn’t wearing a mask and was instead in a nice suit. It was black with gray pinstripes running down it. “There is nothing you could possibly offer us. You are a vile sinner who is going to rot in hell for the rest of eternity.”

“Hey now, we all have a past, but I’m doing a decent job of atoning for mine.”

“This extermination is not for your past, Mr. Stark. It is for what you are at your very core, a filthy animal, a corruptor of the innocent… a faggot.”

“Oh god,” Tony groaned. He leaned his head back on the stretcher and closed his eyes to keep from rolling his eyes. “You’re not terrorists,” he realized. “You’re religious nut jobs who think it’s your place to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Fuck me…”

A hard slap startled Tony and he opened his eyes. 

“I am only doing as what has been commanded of me, Mr. Stark. I assure you, I will take no pleasure from your inevitable death. Now, my associates… they might enjoy this.”

The man who’d dragged Tony in started to laugh. It was a low sound and sent chills down Tony’s spine. 

Tony screamed.

 

“I love him and you fuckers can just kiss my ass because nothing you do to me is going to change that!” Tony yelled to the ceiling after being returned to his room. While taking a mental inventory of his injuring, Tony repeated, “I love him. I love him.” Breathing kinda sucked, but at that point, life kinda sucked too…  
It wasn’t hard to put all the pieces together after spending time as a human pincushion. 

Steve had been living in Stark Tower on and off for months after the fall of SHIELD. He went off with Sam from time to time to try and track down Bucky, but after a few weeks he always came back. Bruce and Clint were already living in the tower, so making room for one more wasn’t hard. (Making room for one less wasn’t hard either when Pepper decided to move out. It had hurt, but Tony had understood where she was coming from.)

After about six months of sniping and silly arguments and a whole lot of, “Why are you even here?”, “Fine, I’ll go!”, “When are you coming home?”, and “I’ll be back tomorrow.” something between Tony and Steve changed. They had one crazy make out session on the kitchen counter and woke up in bed together the next morning. 

They’d kept their ‘relationship’ a secret for the first couple months. But once it really evolved into something more than sex, once there were feelings, more specifically positive feelings, Steve didn’t want to be in the shadows. 

They were both used to the limelight, but that didn’t make it easier. Steve was a national icon. A lot of people felt the need to voice their opinions on how Tony was a ‘disgusting piece of shit’ who was debasing America and her core values. Luckily, most people didn’t have the ability to organize a hate group that abducted people.

But then they had argued... and argued some more. Relationships were never easy, but when Tony had buckled down, ready to work it all out, Steve had left.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” and angry voice teased as Tony was shook awake. 

The door was open so Tony could see the stretcher waiting for him. With broken and aching fingers, Tony tried to grab at the chain to keep himself down. “No!” he screamed over and over.

 

The world was shaking, crumbling around him. He heard yelling from somewhere far away. Part of Tony hoped the building would be swallowed up and he’d be put out of his misery. Everything hurt. Even as the ground shook under him, when Tony heard the door to his room open, he couldn’t stop himself from curling into a ball. When hands landed on him, he didn’t try to fight. The pain was worse when he fought.

“I’m so sorry, Tony. I’m so sorry.”

Tony was confused; that voice sounded familiar.

“They wanted to punish me. They wanted to punish both of us, but… they thought I needed to be punished for loving you. That what I feel for you is wrong and needed to be wiped out. I’m so sorry.”

“Steve,” Tony mumbled into warm skin. Was it really Steve? More than once Tony had imagined Steve rescuing him over the past few days. Tony had imagined Steve coming in and punching out the Crazy Old Man (COM never touched Tony himself as if he was afraid of being infected, but h did supervise the torture sessions.) like he’d once punched Hitler. But this wasn’t Steve, this was Captain America and it must be real. It must be.

Tony’s stomach rolled when he was suddenly picked up bridal style. He tried desperately to clamp down his nausea; puking down Captain America’s back wasn’t how he wanted his rescue to go. When they were out of the room, Tony lifted his head just enough to meet Steve’s eye. “You’ll come home, right? Please tell me you’re coming home. Please, don’t make me go home alone.”

“Hydra couldn’t drag me from your side.”

“Shit, don’t say things like that,” Tony admonished, voice low. “With our luck, they might just try.”

“Yes, Tony. I want to come home. I want to lie in bed with you and make breakfast and argue about how much time you spend in your lab and suffer through Dummy’s terrible smoothies and so, so much more with you.” Steve paused to press a kiss onto the top of Tony’s head. As much as he wanted Steve’s lips all over his body, Tony grimaced at the touch; he knew he was disgusting.

“Don’t do that.” Steve frowned. “I don’t care if you’re a little ripe, so long as you’re in one piece here in front of me. All I care about is that you’re ok.”

“Sure, sure…” Tony agreed, his head on Steve’s shoulder. “Hey,” he started when they cleared the building. “What day is today?”

“It’s Christmas, Tony. Well, Christmas Eve day.”

“Oh,” Tony mumbled, unsure of what else to say. He thought he’d kept a pretty good track of how long he’d been confined, but apparently he was wrong. The crazies had had him several more days than he’d thought. But things had been pretty hazy after the pain had started. 

“I never should have left,” Steve admitted as he put Tony into a SHIELD ambulance. No one would know it was by looking at it, but Tony recognized some of the medical staff he’d met after the Battle of New York. “Please forgive me, Tony. I was being stubborn and stupid.”

“So was I,” Tony cut in.

“But the second you went missing… god, I was so scared. You really have to stop scaring me like that.”

Wincing when the EMT hooked him up to an IV, Tony muttered, “I’ll try…”

There was so much more to say, for both of them. But before Steve could keep apologizing or chastising or both, Clint came over and threw something that landed in Tony’s lap. “I know you two don’t need an excuse, but those assholes had some mistletoe decorating their break room.” Clint crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. “Idiots… But anyway, Cap kiss your guy and let’s get home.”

“You know, normally I’d say we don’t have to listen to that jackass,” Tony said as he gave Clint the finger. “And I haven’t brushed my teeth all that recently… But it is Christmas and it is mistletoe, so I guess a little peck couldn’t hurt.” Leaning forward and turning his head to the side, Tony could see the last of his captors getting arrested and put into cars. “And it would be nice to stick it to them, huh?”

Steve put his hand under Tony’s chin and forced his head up so they could look directly at each other. “I like how you think I need any convincing,” he teased before he bent down to give Tony a kiss that was way more than a peck.

“Thank you for coming for me,” Tony whispered after he and Steve had broken apart. The SHIELD EMT was ignoring them and trying to take Tony’s blood-pressure.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> All errors are MINE!
> 
> I'm on tumblr :) https://www.tumblr.com/blog/blumvale1


End file.
